Why Do a Daily Project?

I’m often asked where I get my ideas from, and one answer is: by doing, by staying busy. And daily projects are a very good way to stay busy.

What are daily projects?

A daily project is a creative challenge where I resolve to work on a topic or project every day for a certain period of time. For example, every day for a month, 100 days, 365 days, or every week for 52 weeks.

Daily Projects are an opportunity to learn something new and practice it regularly. By setting myself the task of working on the topic every day, I don’t have to think about whether I should sit down every night or watch TV instead. That sounds like a strict regiment, but it can be very liberating because the decision that I’m going to do something has already been made. I just have to decide what I’m going to do.

But even that is already limited in some of these projects by predefined »prompts«, i.e. keywords that the participants work to. The advantage of this is that I don’t have to think too much about what I’m going to do. In addition, an impulse from outside can give me ideas that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own.

Enthusiasm and choking

»The 100 Day Project« by Lindsay Jean Thomson is such a free challenge. Here, all participants start on a specific date and the community and the exchange with others are an important part of the project.

The community was also an enrichment for my first Daily Project. The impetus for this came from Francis Choquet, because in a talk at the Berlin Letters Festival he told how much 100-Day Lettering had advanced his work. When he was done with his talk, we in the audience wanted to have that experience too, so we got Francis to start the next round of 100-Day Lettering right after the festival in May 2019.

For me and many others, the energy released by the festival flowed directly into the Challenge and drawing daily and showing it on Instagram changed the way I work as well. Since the Challenge, my sketchbook has been an important counterpart and working tool for me, and the many alphabets I drew for 100-Day Lettering became my book »Alphabets« a year later.

But 100 day projects are not always so successful. In the winter of 2020, I also participated in the next round of 100-Day Lettering and resolved to produce a lettering animation every day. On day 23, I gave up. My intention was simply too ambitious. Animations are complex and I didn’t master the technique enough – this realization can also be the result of a challenge.

No matter how thoughtfully I set my rules for the project, some days are tough. There are sags, tough times, and the longer I’ve persevered, the more painful it is to admit it to myself when I don’t make it on a given day. But life comes first and it’s not the end of the world to skip a day. I just put the day in the back.

It’s all part of it – joy, exuberance, inspiration, but also boredom, impatience and frustration. And really, these projects are about getting to know yourself better: what do I enjoy? What comes easily to me? When do I get bored and where do I struggle? When I know these things about myself, I can much better »follow the energy« and do exactly what I enjoy and find easy.

At this point, my mother would say: »But you don’t always have the choice!« She’s right. But you can strive for it.

100 Days of Patterns

Another prayer part of a 100 Day Challenge is to show the process to others. In the social media or simply to a close person. This makes the commitment to daily action more binding, and it also makes a project more fun if you take others along with you and exchange ideas with them. Many people like to watch how a work develops. I feel the same way, with some artists I look forward to the update every day.

This time I’m dealing with patterns for 100 days – analog with self-carved stamps and digital in Adobe Illustrator. I’ve always wanted to learn Illustrator for real, so that’s what I’m doing now as part of the challenge. My rules for these 100 days: do a little something every day, for example design a pattern or continue watching an online course about pattern design.

I make sure to engage in patterns every day, but I’m not too particular about posting, I show something when I have something to show. 40 days into the challenge, I’ve posted a pattern in a story on Instagram 27 days.

More about Daily Projects

The 100 Day Project

On the website of the 100 Day Project, you can sign up for the newsletter to find out when the challenge next starts.

Silke Schmidt

The 100 Day Projects of the artist Silke Schmidt are something special. She is not only great at drawing, but also at storytelling, and in spring 2022 she will be taking part in the 100 day project for the sixth time. Her titles alone are great: »100 days of catching stars«, »100 days of people I have met along the way« and this year: »100 days out of Berlin«.

Stefano Stoppani

In 2021, Stefano Stoppani had resolved to carve a stamp every day for a year and print a pattern with it. But when the year was over, he just kept going. He also kept his Instagram name 365blockprints, because his stamps and patterns quickly found many fans there.

Mark Addison Smith

I wonder if Stefano Stoppani will keep going as long as Mark Addison Smith? Mark started his daily drawing project You Look Like the Right Type on November 23, 2008, and he hasn’t skipped a single day since. In an interview for this blog, I asked him if he has an exit strategy at all.